Blog
Practical notes for law firms on choosing what to automate, preparing for new software and keeping it working after launch.
Articles
Thirty-six short articles to start.
- How to prepare a law firm for a software implementationA short guide: who decides, what to write down and how to involve the team before a project starts.
- Why monthly support matters after launchWhat changes after launch, what happens without support and what monthly support usually covers.
- How to automate client intake in a law firmA practical outline of intake: what to capture, who owns the next step and how to connect it to the case record.
- How to handle physical mail and phone calls in a law firmHow providers connected to the firm's workflow can handle mail and calls, and what the firm still decides.
- What the data says about responding quickly to new clientsWhat a marketing agency and Clio found when they contacted law firms, and what the figures do not show.
- How much of a lawyer's day is billable, and what that leaves outWhat a vendor's usage benchmark reports about billable hours, and why unbilled time is not the same as administrative work.
- Client communication and calls: what is known and what is notWhat Illinois disciplinary records and Clio's calling experiment show about communication, and where no figures exist.
- Technology adoption in law firms: what surveys show and what they do notWhat ABA, ILTA and Clio surveys report about cloud tools, practice management software and AI, and why they cannot be compared.
- Communication in lawyer discipline records: what the data shows by stateWhat records from Illinois, Minnesota and Florida say about communication and discipline, and where the data stops.
- From worked hours to collected fees: two sets of numbers that should not be mixedWhat Clio and the Thomson Reuters Institute report about billing and collection, and why the two should not be compared.
- Administrative time in law firms: what is known and what is notWhat a survey of small-firm lawyers reports about how they spend their time, and what no source measures.
- What software vendors' studies show, and what they do notWhat Clio's own studies report about its software, and the limits that come with research funded by the vendor.
- What a law firm's contact page needs to turn inquiries into clientsWhat to put on a contact page, what to leave out and what to check once it is live.
- How to document a law firm's processes before automating themA simple way to write down how a task is done today, so automation starts from facts and not from memory.
- Connecting email, calendar and case management: when to do it and when not toHow to decide which tools to connect, in what order, and which to leave separate.
- A simple follow-up process for inquiries that did not become clientsA follow-up that a small team can run: who owns each step, what to record and when to stop.
- How to measure whether an automation workedWhat to measure, how to get a starting point and how to read the result without inventing metrics.
- Custom software, configuring a platform or doing nothing: how to chooseHow to compare building custom software, configuring a tool the firm already has and leaving a process as it is.
- Preparing a firm's data before moving to a new systemWhat to inventory, clean and decide about clients, matters and contacts before any data is moved.
- Deadline control: what a calendar and reminder system must solve, and where it failsWhat a deadline system must do, the usual points of failure and how to check them.
- Rules for organizing a law firm's inbox and filing email to the matterSimple rules for sorting incoming email, assigning it and saving the right messages to the client file.
- Connecting e-signature and documents to the matter fileHow to link document preparation and e-signature to the matter file, and what to check before you do.
- How to train a law firm's team on a new tool so that it gets usedA training plan for attorneys and staff: what to teach, in what order and how to tell whether the tool is being used.
- What monthly technology support should include and how to evaluate a providerWhat to ask a technology provider before agreeing to monthly support, and how to compare offers.
- What to ask a technology provider about the security of client informationQuestions about access, storage, confidentiality and incidents to put to a provider, and how to read the answers.
- Backups and recovery: what a law firm needs and how to test itWhat to back up, how many copies to keep and where, and how to test that recovery works.
- A client portal: when it makes sense and when it does notWhat a client portal can do, when it fits a firm's work and what to check before adopting one.
- Connecting time worked to the invoice without entering it twiceHow to capture time once, review it and carry it to the invoice and the payment record, and what to check.
- How to run a technology project in a law firm: scope, owners, phases and when to say noA way to define scope, name owners, work in phases and say no to changes that do not belong.
- Multi-factor authentication in a law firm: what it is and where it goes wrongWhat it is, the kinds of method and the mistakes firms make when they turn it on.
- Phishing and email fraud aimed at law firms: signs to watch and habits that helpThe signs of phishing and email fraud, and the habits that let a firm verify first.
- Accounts and permissions: who can open what, and what happens when someone leavesHow to give each person the access their work needs and close it the day they leave.
- How e-signature works and what evidence it leavesHow an e-signature request works, what it records and what to review with your attorney.
- Migrating case management: phases, testing and switching off the old systemA phased plan, what to test and how to retire the old system safely.
- Keeping and disposing of firm data and devices safelyWhy deleting a file is not removing it, and the levels of media sanitization NIST describes.
Resources
A one-page checklist for choosing a first project to automate.
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